Salmonella Spurs New Spinach Recall

The California-based company Metz Fresh is voluntarily recalling certain bags of its fresh spinach after finding salmonella in a batch of spinach during the company's routine testing. More here. The recall prompted renewed calls for more rigorous oversight from lawmakers. That story here.

Korea-US Food Fight

Hey folks:

Just wanted to alert you of this free trade agreement coming up the pike and what it will mean for farmers in Korea. Also lots of other frightening schemes backed by biotech companies and agribusinesses. Cheers, Christine

Connecting the Dinner Plate to Climate Change

The biggest animal rights groups do not always overlap in their missions, but now they have coalesced around a message that eating meat is worse for the environment than driving. They and smaller groups have started advertising campaigns that try to equate vegetarianism with curbing greenhouse gases. Some backlash against this position is inevitable, the groups acknowledge, but they do have scientific ammunition. In late November, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. More here.

Also, Aurora, a huge Colorado organic dairy, agreed yesterday to stop applying the organic label to some of its milk and make major changes in its operation after the Department of Agriculture threatened to revoke its organic certification for, among other problems, failing to provide enough pasture to its cows. While the U.S.D.A. has taken action against other organic producers, the consent decree with Aurora represents a rare show of force against a leading supplier of products to the rapidly expanding market for organic foods. More here.
ps. More on The Laughing Squid & Wired.

Useful Mutants, Bred With Radiation

Dr. Lagoda, the head of plant breeding and genetics at the International Atomic Energy Agency, prides himself on being a good salesman. It can be a tough act, however, given wide public fears about the dangers of radiation and the risks of genetically manipulated food. His work combines both fields but has nonetheless managed to thrive. The process leaves no residual radiation or other obvious marks of human intervention. It simply creates offspring that exhibit new characteristics. Though poorly known, radiation breeding has produced thousands of useful mutants and a sizable fraction of the world’s crops, Dr. Lagoda said, including varieties of rice, wheat, barley, pears, peas, cotton, peppermint, sunflowers, peanuts, grapefruit, sesame, bananas, cassava and sorghum. More here.

How Obesity Policies are Failing

Adult obesity rates rose in 31 states last year, according to the fourth annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America, 2007 report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH). Twenty-two states experienced a statistically significant increase for the second year in a row; no states decreased. A new public opinion survey featured in the report finds 85 percent of Americans believe that obesity is an epidemic.
Findings, recommendations and graphic here. Full report here.

Soap, Drugs, And Rock & Roll!

Soap or dope or neither?  The Narco Pouch, which cops use for field-testing suspected GHB, turns out to be a great tool for discerning real soap from petrochemical waste.  

"For on Spaceship Earth with Bomb & Gun, we're All-One or none!  

Exceptions eternally?  Absolute none!"

ONE OF WORLD'S BIGGEST CHARITIES PROTESTS U.S. SUBSIDIES

Care, one of the largest global charities, has announced that it will boycott the U.S. policy of selling tons of heavily subsidized U.S. grown food to African countries. Care wants the US government to send money to buy food locally, rather than unwanted U.S. produced food. The U.S. arm of the charity says America is causing rather than reducing hunger with a decree that US food aid must be sold rather than directly distributed to those facing starvation.

Raw for 30 Days - Trailer

This is AWESOME!! Raw for 30 Days is an independent documentary film that chronicles six Americans who switch to a diet consisting entirely of vegan, organic, live, raw foods in order to reverse diabetes naturally. The six give up meat, dairy, sugar, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, soda, junk food, fast food, processed food, packaged food, and even cooked food. P.S.--IT WORKS!! <~Click "comments" below to add your thoughts!~>

Plenty of Apples, but a Shortage of Pickers

This is the third year in a row of near-perfect conditions for apple growing in New York's Hudson Valley. While weather conditions have cooperated and industry experts say demand for apples nationwide has approached an all-time high, there are new fears in New York and around the nation over whether there will be enough hands to pick the crop. Under new rules, if the Social Security Administration finds that an applicant’s information does not match its database, employers are required to fire the worker or risk being fined up to $10,000 for knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant. More here.

Blue ear disease spreading in pigs in China

China has been hit by a highly infectious swine virus, which is bringing increases in pork prices and fears of a global pandemic among domesticated pigs. So far the virus, believed to be an unusually deadly form of an infection known as blue-ear pig disease, has spread to 25 of this country's 33 provinces and regions. A similar virus has already been detected in neighboring Vietnam and Myanmar, and health experts are now trying to determine whether it crossed Chinese borders. The government recently issued alarming reports that farmers were selling diseased or infected pigs to illegal slaughterhouses, which could pose food safety problems. More here.

Follow Up (08.24):Smithfield Foods Inc. (SFD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Friday announced a deal to sell 60 million pounds of pork to a Chinese trading company and said there could be more sales. More here.

Prices for Key Foods Are Rising Sharply

The Labor Department's most recent inflation data showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.1 percent for the 12 months ending in June, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are actually rising by double digits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its June inflation report that egg prices are 19.5 percent higher than they were in June 2006. Over the same period, according to the department's consumer price index, whole milk was up 13.3 percent; fresh chicken 10 percent; navel oranges 19.8 percent; apples 11.7 percent. Dried beans were up 11.5 percent, and white bread just missed double-digit growth, rising by 9.6 percent.
Why? It's partly because of corn prices, driven up by congressional mandates for ethanol production, which have reduced the amount of corn available for animal feed. It's also because of tougher immigration enforcement and a late spring freeze, which have made farm laborers scarcer and damaged fruit and vegetable crops, respectively. And it's because of higher diesel fuel costs to run tractors and attractive foreign markets that take U.S. production...more here.

Whole Foods Can Purchase of Wild Oats

Whole Foods Market Inc.'s $565 million purchase of Wild Oats Markets Inc. doesn't violate federal antitrust law and can proceed, a federal judge ruled, allowing the two largest U.S. natural foods grocers to combine. More here.
Follow Up (08.17): The Federal Trade Commission on Friday appealed the federal court's decision. More here.
Follow Up (08.24): It's official; the original decision stands...more here.

Ahead of the Bell: USDA Crop Report

Wall Street will be watching for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's report on Friday, which estimates the size of the country's corn and soybean crops. Banc of America Securities analyst Eric K. Brown expects substantially higher corn prices in 2008 and 2009, based on sharply higher ethanol capacity. Specifically, Brown forecast corn prices of $3.49 per bushel in 2008 and 2009, versus $3 per bushel in 2007 and 2008. More here. Wheat production will also be up from last year, but will be less than USDA predictions. More here.

Follow Up (08/10): The full text of the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report can be found here.